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Law enforcement intelligence-processing fusion centers have long come under attack for spying on Americans. The Arkansas director wanted to clarify the truth: centers only spies on some Americans – those who appear to be a threat to the government.

APRIL 2013 - The dramatic recent events in Cyprus have highlighted the fundamental weakness in the European banking system and the extreme fragility of fractional reserve banking. Cypriot banks invested heavily in Greek sovereign debt, and last summer's Greek debt restructuring resulted in losses equivalent to more than 25 percent of Cyprus' GDP. These banks then took their bad investments to the government, demanding a bailout from an already beleaguered Cypriot treasury. The government of Cyprus then turned to the European Union (EU) for a bailout.

Being president of the U.S., the most powerful man in the world, is often most about perception. The man (or, one day, woman) in the job takes actions large and small every day, but it is the perception of the man that seeps into the everyday lives of working Americans.

Sometimes, that perception cuts to the core. Like when President George W. Bush stopped playing golf in 2003, at the height of the Iraq War.

Dad Shoots Family Dog to Retrieve Boy's Finger. FLORIDA MAN DISEMBOWELS ANIMAL IN FRANTIC SEARCH. A father in Florida shot and disemboweled one of the family dogs yesterday in an effort to retrieve his son's finger.

Dodgeball has been banned in Windham schools, due to concerns about violence and bullying, with the School Board voting 4-1 to remove dodgeball and nine other “human target” activities from the district’s curriculum. “We spend a lot of time making sure our kids are violence free. Here we have games where we use children as targets. That seems to be counter to what we are trying to accomplish with our anti-bullying campaign.”

Already bigger than many sovereign currencies, Bitcoin has broken the $1 billion in value mark this week. In the wake of continuing economic crises and liquidity shortages, this new virtual currency is poised to challenge the euro and US dollar.
By not being tied to any particular financial institution and independent from world governments, Bitcoin will become a safe haven for anyone trying to save their money from the crippled international banking system, claimed Max Keiser, the host of RT's Keiser Report.

North Dakota is the very definition of a red state. It voted 58 percent to 39 percent for Romney over Obama, and its statehouse and senate have a total of 104 Republicans and only 47 Democrats. The Republican super-majority is so conservative it recently passed the nation’s most severe anti-abortion resolution – a measure that declares a fertilized human egg has the same right to life as a fully formed person. But North Dakota is also red in another sense: it fully supports its state-owned Bank of North Dakota (BND), a socialist relic that exists nowhere else in America.

Despite threats of big fines by state banking regulators, the owner of a Shadyside (Pittsburgh, Pa) ice cream shop who opened his own version of a community bank last summer isn't abandoning his mission.

"We are taking on the challenge of transforming the retail banking industry," his website states.
"PA dept of banks threatening us ... we keep growing," he tweeted in late December.

Instead of deposits he is offering "never-ending gift cards." (More hilarious examples of how this ice cream shop/bank owner is getting around regulations in the article).

Recently a 16 year old was killed in the Bronx by police officers in plain clothes. Witnesses swear that the man had no gun. People take to the streets in protest. Police officers challenge stop and frisk laws. "Roughly 4.4 million people have been stopped by the NYPD during the joint tenure of Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, according to official government data. Nearly nine out of ten have been released without an arrest or summons. About 86 percent of those stopped have been black or Latino. "

Debate opens on sex life of France's disabled. Belgian law often leaves the sale of sex in a legal gray area, allowing for some sexual services for people with severe disabilities. In neighboring France, however, a tense debate on the topic is just beginning.